Isolated System

[Griffin G]

Is it ever possible to create a system that is truly, 100% isolated? I feel like it's impossible to fully shield a region from the outside universe without at least a microscopic amount of energy entering and exiting.

[Sahiti Annadata 3D]

There are definitely systems that are isolated, for example, a thermos flask, but it is hard to make something truly 100% isolated unless it is a vacuum.

[Sahaj Patel Lec3DisK]

While you can never create a 100% isolated systems that are 100% efficient (nothing is ever 100% efficient), an example I can think of is the universe. Theoretically speaking, this is the only isolated system that is 100% isolated. Hope this helps!

[Alex Mele 2A]

I don't think it's possible for a real system to be truly isolated. There is always some energy exchange.

[kentbui1d]

The only way would be in a vacuum, but I don't think it's realistically possible.

[OmarArafat_2K]

Definitely agree with you now that I think about it, but there may be a few exceptions out there to 100% completely isolated systems.

[Shivani Kapur 2J]

I'm not sure it is completely possible but I think the best bet would be in a vacuum.

[Blake Ballew 1H]

Similar to how Dr Lavelle said that a system can never be at absolute zero in his discussion of the third law of thermodynamics, I think its also fair to assume that there can never be an energy change of absolute zero in any system. I think a lot of topics in this section we sort of have to suspend our belief and just treat everything as if it were in an "ideal world."

[Massimo_Capozza_1G]

No energy will always be lost in some form to the surroundings

[Anastasia Yulo 1C]

The closest one can get to an isolated system would be to use something like a bomb calorimeter. However, even a bomb calorimeter is not perfect adn there would inevitably be an escape of energy.

[Kaleb Tuliau 3E]

So for all of these problems we make the assumption that it's 100% isolated?

[Nathan Tong 3G]

I believe for these types of problems, if it states that the system is isolated, then you can approximate there to be only an insignificant amount of energy lost to the surroundings. You can assume that the energy lost is very close to zero.